Talk:Miles O'Brien
Votes for FA (2004) * Content moved to Memory Alpha:Nominations for featured articles/Archive 2006#Miles O'Brien, per the revoking of this article's featured status, found at Memory Alpha:Featured article removal candidates/Archive#Miles O'Brien (August 2nd). --Alan del Beccio 00:14, 4 February 2008 (UTC) Job description i've made some slight alterations in the wording of O'Brien's job description, since it really is pedantic to state he underwent complete job transfers every time he was seen manning a different post. More likely, he was assigned duty where he was needed. -- Captain Mike K. Bartel 02:26, 30 Jul 2004 (CEST) :Perhaps he was a Jack of All Trades. -- Redge 12:58, 30 Jul 2004 (CEST) Rank topic 1 Does anyone have any theories why O'Brien was promoted from Ensign to Lieutenant, and then seemingly becoming uncommissioned before he was transferred to DS9 as a CPO? This has been bugging me for some time now, and no-one has given me a plausable theory yet! zsingaya 08:14, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC) :Don't know about starfleet, but in the US Navy there is a program that senior non-comissioned officers can elect to go through when selected that elevates them to the rank of lieutenet for 2 years, then they get the choice to head off to OCS (Officer Candidate School) and retain the commision, or revert back to a non-com if they prefer that. Wow, I did not know about that! That would partly explain O'Brien's rank change, apart from the fact that he started on the Enterprise as an Ensign on the bridge, and that he was a commissioned officer for all the time he was on the Enterprise, right up until he was transferred to Deep Space 9. zsingaya 21:31, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC) In "The Way of the Warrior", O'Brien wore a black pip, but by "Rejoined" his rank had changed to his more unusual rank pin. zsingaya 15:03, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC) :::More likely? arbitrary creator decision. Not sure what the reason would be, or why they would decide that O'Brien would be better on DS9 as a non-com than a lieutenant (to my knowledge, his being an NCO has never been used as a basis for any plot point in either series. Perhaps the creators simply wanted to add another level of depth to the rank system. ::::Actually, O'Brien was a Chief Petty Officer by TNG: Family, where Sergey Rozhenko noted how nice it was to see another Petty Officer, and remarked to O'Brien how odd it was for an Enlisted to have an Officer son. -- 18:32, 25 July 2006 (UTC) First Name For a good portion of TNG, O'Brien was never given a first name. Does anyone know in which episode he is given "Miles"? And if so, is it relevant for this article? Vash The Stampede 22:37, 18 January 2006 (UTC) :Not 100% sure, but I'm pretty sure he was named in full in Data's Day, for his wedding. :To correct my own previous statement, it appears that "Family" was the episode that reveals his full name. Miles and Julian I know this was one of my favorite parts of all of my ST watching: the relationship between Julian and Miles growing and flourishing. I think a bit more in this article should be added to encompass and elaborate on the process, it was perhaps the best and most believable of the friendships that I have seen in ST. Perhaps a subsection of friendships dedicated to this topic? (Note: sorry for initial talk, trying to get a grasp on this whole thing!) --XxDkCobraxX 19:08, 6 February 2006 (UTC) Tactical Officer Something that bugs me is the use of the title "Tactical Officer" in reference to an enlisted crewman. To be a tactical officer, doesn't one need to be... an officer? Unless it's directly quoted in the canon (in which case I am an utter fool) perhaps it should be changed to something a tad bit more realistic, such as "Security Director", "Tactical Director", "Captain of Security" or such. --The Rev 17:08, 24 April 2006 (UTC) :To my knowledge he was called that, if you notice he was also some sort of assistant chief engineer (begin of Season 4) and relief tactical officer (during redemption). All those were before it was decided to go for the "Chief Petty Officer" variant rather the "Chief Warrant Officer" explanation used in Encyclopedia before. Even though he was addressed as Lieutenant and also dressed like one in seasons 2 and 3 -- Kobi 18:33, 24 April 2006 (UTC) ::Actually, In TNG: The Wounded, Captain Maxwell does refer to O'brian as his "Tactical officer" – 7th Tactical 05:58, 2 March 2007 (UTC) ::: While serving aboard the , likely under different circumstances. --Alan 19:34, 5 August 2007 (UTC) Last TNG episode Does anybody know what O'Brien's last episode of TNG was prior to the beginning of DS9? --From Andoria with Love 20:30, 25 May 2006 (UTC) Nevermind, I think I found it: it was "Rascals". Please let me know if I'm wrong, though. --From Andoria with Love 20:33, 25 May 2006 (UTC) : It is "Rascals". The episode also saw Rosalind Chao's last appearance on TNG and the first and last appearance as Hana Hatae as Molly O'Brien. Its kind of that episodes fault for the Molly O'Brien age confusion. Why would a four year old kid play a one year old toddler? -- Tough Little Ship 20:36, 25 May 2006 (UTC) Forum:Why does Miles O'Brien have a different style rank insignia in DS9? (aka Rank topic 2) Can anyone explain why Miles O'Brien has a different style of rank insignia in DS9 instead of the usual starfleet pips? I'm almost certain that when serving as the transporter officer aboard the Enterprise-D he had the tradtional pips to denote his ranking, however in DS9 his ranking insignia seems to be unlike anyone else's. Why is this? :I'm sure this is explained elsewhere, but his DS9 insignia reperesent that he is an enlisted man. Why they did not have that in TNG? Oh well, ignore that they didn't. --OuroborosCobra talk 21:06, 18 August 2006 (UTC) ::When Colm Meanly first appeared on TNG he was meant to be a one-time side character, without a name or substance. He was given random uniforms and ranks, which in the first few seasons of TNG ranged from ensign to lt. sr grade, in both yellow and red uniforms. It was only later, as his character became more developed that it was established he would be an enlisted officer. His unique DS9 pip is most likely to denote that although he is enlisted, he is a senior officer. -- Jaz talk 04:59, 24 August 2006 (UTC) Birth and Enlistment dates... Where does O'Brien's birthdate of 2328 come from? I gather that his enlistment date of 2346 is based on him being only recently assigned to the Rutledge in 2347. Did we go back 18 years from that and come up with 2328, or is that date established somewhere? About the 2347 date, though... In Rules of Engagement (which takes place in 2372), Ch'Pok asks O'Brien, "How long have you been in Starfleet?" O'Brien responds "Twenty-two years." 2372 - 22 years = 2350, so the 2347 date can't be accurate, which makes all of O'Brien's pre-TNG dates off. Thoughts on this? --TimPendragon 05:29, 19 September 2006 (UTC) I've just been told over on http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=6633058&an=&page=0&vc=1 this thread at TrekBBS that the script for "Whispers" lists O'Brien's birthdate as 2331, which tracks better with the 2350 date from "RoE" (based on joining Starfleet at 18, per "Shadowplay"). I cannot find a single reference that supports 2328, except as extrapolated from O'Brien's comments in "Realm of Fear" and "Paradise," which are not hard-and-fast dates. --TimPendragon 22:42, 23 September 2006 (UTC) :I just checked the script (found here, and I can find no such reference. The 2328 reference is also not from any episode; it actually comes from conjecture by the authors of the Star Trek Encyclopedia based on the assumption that he was 18 around the time of the Setlik III massacre. So, neither dates have any strong hold in canon, as far as I can tell. --From Andoria with Love 02:49, 24 September 2006 (UTC) O'Brien Must Suffer The existence of a tradition of yearly "O'Brien must suffer" episodes explains a lot for me. I've often wondered "Why are there so many episodes where bad stuff happens to O'Brien? He should have gone totally nuts after all the bad stuff that happened to him." Is there any definitive list of which episodes are "O'Brien must suffer" episodes? I have guesses, but it would be cool to see one. Knowledge of transporters vs. shields In 2367, Miles was forced to confront his former commanding officer, when Captain Maxwell went rogue, launching attacks on Cardassian outposts and ships inspite of a peace treaty between the Federation and Cardassia. It was O'Brien's knowledge of transporter systems that allowed him to beam aboard Maxwell's ship, the Phoenix, while her shields were up, giving him a chance to reason with Maxwell, ultimately preventing further bloodshed. ( ) Wasn't it more O'Brien's knowledge of the cyclic nature of the Phoenix shields than knowledge of the transporter systems? It's been a while, since I've seen the episode though.--lifeisharsh20 Smiley I had added a mention of Smiley to the "Alternate realities" section, and it got reverted, with the justification apparantly being that Smiley's already mentioned at the top of the article. That may be, but the character still is an alternate reality version of O'Brien, and as far as I'm aware, there's no rule against a portion of the main article elaborating on something mentioned at the top. I don't want to start a ping-pong game, so I'll leave it for now, I just wanted to state my case here and see if there's some sort of consensus, but it seems to me that if there's an alternate realities section at all, there's no good reason to omit Smiley. - Ugliness Man 15:58, 3 February 2007 (UTC) :It is mentioned at the top, with a link to his article, and more information. Part of the point of wikis is to not have to re-explain terms and such on a dozen pages. People simply follow the link, and see the one page on it. --OuroborosCobra talk 19:21, 3 February 2007 (UTC) :I think a very, very brief mention of Smiley, might be okay in the alternate realities section, but as he has his own page, it's not necessary. That section is for covering alternate O'Briens who otherwise would not be covered (alternate, non-mirror versions do not generally get their own page, since Worf messed that up). I understand what you're saying though (imo, the mirror universe is more parallel than alternate, but that's another discussion).--Tim Thomason 20:08, 3 February 2007 (UTC) Trill? A recent addition was made: :"O'Brien was literate in the Trill language." Granted, it has been a long time since I saw this episode, but what is the basis for this claim? Is it that he talked to Trill? --OuroborosCobra talk 15:27, 7 March 2007 (UTC) :He reads the text on a monitor in the Tigan family household which is written in the Trill language. --Jörg 15:30, 7 March 2007 (UTC) Coffee An earlier reference to his preference of coffee is Rascals. -- TNG Pilot Am I completely crazy, or did they call him by a completely different last name starting with O'somethingotherthanBrien in the pilot? It's been a while since I've seen Encounter at farpoint-- 00:49, 22 April 2007 (UTC) :Yes, you are completely crazy.. :In the TNG pilot they only referred to him by the name of the position he occupied in that scene: "Conn" was specified in the TNG technical manual as being short for "flight controller", it was a term used sporadically during the TNG series. :O'Brien wasn't named until an episode in TNG Season 2. -- Captain MKB 00:52, 22 April 2007 (UTC) ::He's named as "Bridge Conn Officer" or something like that in the credits. – – Tranchera 11:56, 27 May 2007 (UTC) Involvement in TNG I always found it odd that Miles was specifically called the Chief in all the TNG episodes, when he was just like any other recurring extra on the series at the time. It's a bit funny, seeing as though he really only had an episode about him (two in a row, in fact) in Season 4. Why would they wait so long to give him the limelight if they had already decided to make him a "special extra", and indeed why would they make him a character at all? – – Tranchera 12:01, 27 May 2007 (UTC) :Colm Meaney, who played O'Brien, was never an "extra" on TNG. An extra is an actor who has a non-speaking role, often in the background and generally for a few seconds, and are usually uncredited. Meaney began as a co-star (co-stars generally play smaller characters than guest stars and play a less significant role in the story, but they are not extras) and worked his way up to recurring performer and, ultimately, a regular on DS9. They really didn't wait too long to make him a recurring player; he was such by TNG Season 2, although he was still only a co-star. As his popularity and the production staff's affection for the character/actor grew, he was given more screentime and more storylines. --From Andoria with Love 19:29, 27 May 2007 (UTC) Rank Thumbnail Pictures Any idea what happened to the rank pictures? They are now showing up as thes ehuge pics taking up a third of the page (at least on my browser). Before they were of a managable size. Thoughts? -FleetCaptain 10:14, 15 February 2008 (EST) :I agree that the images look silly as they are now. I'd suggest using close-ups of the insignia in situ but without the ridiculous enlargement. We don't yet have pixelated image enhancement. – Pesky 13:22, 16 February 2008 (UTC) ::Somebody converted the "table" code to "gallery" code -- the "gallery" feature automatically resizes the images, thus the enlargement. We should change it back to the table that would have been showing rank images before. -- Captain MKB 16:59, 16 February 2008 (UTC) Problematic Rank History Could anyone please explain to me why the corrections I made were undone? To sum them up: I removed the "Data's Day" reference because O'Brien's dress uniform clearly showed 2 pips. "Realm of Fear" was the first episode which showed him with the hollow pip. I added a reference to "Shadow Play" in which O'Brien refered to himself as Senior Chief Specialist. I corrected the "Hippocratic Oath" reference. The Jem'Hadar refered to O'Brien as "Chief Petty Officer". --212.166.99.114 08:32, 18 February 2008 (UTC) :The Data Day's reference shouldn't have been simply cut out, you should have modified it; however, if emmoery serves at the very ed of the episode he had a single hollow pip on his dress uniform (whereas his regular uniform had two pips). Also, I think the solider in Hip Oath actually says "Senior Chief Petty Officer" or at least uses the word "Senior." In addition, when anon ips cut out parts of text, it is normally assumed that was done for not-so-legit reasons. Also, I think there were some bad links and grammer problems created from your edits and at the time it was assumed that whatever you did messed up the sizes of the pictures. That problem was not attributed to you after all (see above) so you got the blame for that and apologies are in order. However, I would recommend you establish an account and go from there. Like I said, its just a fact on this site that when ip addresses start making large edits which involve cutting text and breaking links, its assumed that they are not good edits. Sad but true. -FC 18:11, 18 February 2008 (UTC)